Cyber Capacity Building in the Canadian Arctic and the North

The Canadian Arctic cyber domain is set to rapidly expand in the next decade with emerging security vulnerabilities that would benefit from a multi-stakeholder Arctic Cyber Security Ecosystem. Great power competition will affect the Arctic as the United States, Russia, and now China seek to influence the resource rich region. Cyber is not only a matter of defence, but it is interconnected with education and economic development. The threat of disinformation is an example of how new ways of warfare can impact Canada through the Arctic. Cyber capacity building (CCB) could include domestic cyber education, skills training, and investment in scientific and technical (S&T) and information technology (IT) infrastructure. A focus on CCB would need to foster growth of resources available to territorial governments and local communities, hardening the region’s cyberspace and support incident response to malicious cyber actor activity. Information technology security (ITSEC) resources need to be combined with community-based media literacy and critical thinking education programs to increase the region’s resilience to malign influence.